As Nancy Hiller famously said, “It’s all problems.”
We will move the remainder of our inventory into the Anthe building during the first week in October. The three semis have been scheduled. We have a plan.
But until that moment the first truck arrives on Oct. 2, we have to move a few mountains.
It began when our walk-behind forklift was delivered. It was about 8” too tall to fit through our new $6,000 roll-up door. Yes, everyone measured the opening, including the salesman for Crown. Someone somewhere made a mistake.
So to fix that problem, we had to remove the new door, rip out the $400 plastic flaps that kept the AC in the building and hire a mason to remove three courses of bricks ($500) and rebuild the opening. Then order additional parts for the roll-up door ($1,900).
So last week, we rolled our brand-new fork truck through the new opening and we heard a quiet but terrible noise. Some of the old floorboards crumbed under the wheels of the truck.
Yes, a structural engineer inspected the building and green-lighted our plan.
But some of the floorboards were unexpectedly worn (some were 1/4” thick ) and fragile from 130 years of heavy use. (The joists were holding more-than-fine.) So we added felt and a thick tongue-and-groove OSB floor. The floor is designed to be removed by future generations if they want to return to the old floor.
We also added the OSB to the second floor to allow us to move pallets around more easily (there will not be a fork truck on the second floor – just a manual pallet jack).
Despite all this, we are making it, one unexpected problem at a time.
Note: Please do me a favor and don’t take potshots at our efforts here. These decisions were arrived at by professionals (not us) with decades of experience with old buildings. This blog entry cannot possibly give you all the information you need to have an opinion of what is happening on-site. If you’re gonna be a jerk, I’m not going to respond; I’m just going to delete your comment.
Last week, the county inspectors said we could start occupying the first floor and the basement of our new headquarters. And, after we add some more exit signs and emergency lighting, we will be allowed to occupy the second and third floors.
On Monday, we will move our fulfillment operations to the first floor of the Anthe building. John and his crew are going to set up the packing tables and picking carts. And set up some more shelving racks.
This is a big step forward. But there is still much to do. We need to get the second floor cleaned up so we can move the last of our inventory from Indiana. And our general contractor is now fitting out the storefront.
The storefront will be used for storage until we can get the second floor ready for inventory. But after that, we’ll start designing shelving for the retail space. We want to have the retail area done for Christmas. But that is (I’m guessing) stupidly unrealistic.
But “Stupidly Unrealistic Since 2007,” is our corporate motto.
The first floor of the Anthe building on Saturday. The retail store is coming along. All the drywall is required by the county for fire suppression.
When you rehabilitate an old building, your plans have to change (almost daily) to keep things moving forward and to code.
The “code” part of the project is what has been driving us for the last few weeks. We want the building to look like it did when we bought it and was empty. But it also has to be safe and adhere to the county’s regulations if we ever want to occupy it.
This week, the fire-resistant drywall went in around the stairwell, and it was (honestly) a bit dispiriting. I know we are going to cover parts of the drywall with beadboard (some of it original), which will look better. But the drywall really changes the look of the place. And it made us re-evaluate how we are going to use the second floor of the building.
The second floor with the required drywall (the steel ceiling had to be pulled off for the drywall – not our call). The boxed-in stairwell shrinks the space for our offices. We will likely give this floor up to storage.
My hope all along has been to use the second floor as our editorial offices, with excess storage at the rear of the second floor
But after the walls went up to meet code and were covered in the first layer of drywall, it was obvious that the second floor isn’t ideal for offices. The fire-resistant walls interrupt the building’s front windows. And the resulting space (and all the mechanicals on the wall), made me rethink the space.
I think we are going to devote the entire second floor to storage.
After some thought, this makes good sense. The second floor has a double door at the rear (right above our loading area). We can use our forklift to put pallets directly into the second floor from a delivery truck. No elevator necessary.
The third floor is more spacious. Plus we don’t need to remove all of the ceiling. This will likely become our offices. I hope….
The third floor looks like our future editorial offices. The fire-rated drywall area is much smaller, so the space is more open. And we don’t have any plans for it yet. This allows us to grow with lots of storage on the second floor and offices on the third floor, with room for workbenches and all the other things in my head.
Despite all this faffing, we are getting close to occupancy. If our schedule holds, we will be able to move fulfillment operations to Anthe by the end of this month.
It’s not all dispiriting. We have a new functioning awning on the front of the building, which looks fantastic and works. Our bathroom works and is to code (after moving a wall about 5/8″).
And this is my fourth rodeo with 19th-century building rehabs. I know it is always worth it in the end. I had a similar crisis with all of the other buildings we’ve rehabbed. We get through it. And it’s awesome.
Thanks for all of you who have helped fund the restoration. It has made a real difference.
Funky Winkerbean is expressing concerned we won’t correctly interpret our architect’s approved drawings for Phase 1 of the Anthe Building restoration. (Photo by Lucy May)
I’m not sure what counts as an update in Christopher lexicon – but this is the fourth numbered update on what’s been happening at what will become the new Lost Art Press headquarters, so we’ll go with No. 4! (You can read an FAQ about plans for the new space in this June 28 post.)
The view from the back, looking forward to what will eventually become a retail space (on the far side of the framing). In the foreground is the bathroom.
We received the stamp of approval from the county last week to proceed with the plans as drawn by our Cincinnati-based architect and friend, Trenton Bradford (whom we first met as a student in an ATC class, and we’re awfully glad we did!). Our general contractor, Bill Kreidler (BK Remodeling), has been working at warp speed on framing the walls to replace the old and falling-down ones (and salvaging the old beadboard for re-use) and get all the subcontractors in for the drywall, plumbing, electric, painting….
The Floor Chris and I sprayed the floor with two heavy coats of shellac to encapsulate some residual machine oil odor after multiple floor scrubbings, and to offer a modicum of protection for the original floorboards (and the new patches that were installed where necessary).
TheBathroom We got the OK on the bathroom framing two weeks ago – so that’s the most visible and functional change to report: We have a functioning bathroom, complete with tile (that you cannot see much of it in the picture below because it’s currently protected with cardboard). The bathroom is ADA compliant, or will be, as soon as we get the grab bars on the walls. Oh – and we need to get the door installed.
The interior of the new bathroom. I am fond of the exposed brick around the window, with its vestiges of decades-old (possibly a century-old, but probably not) paint.
The bathroom exterior is clad in beadboard that has been painted and glazed to look like the 100-year-old beadboard that was salvaged from the “front of house” (we’ll be using that salvaged stuff on the interior of what will some day become the storefront). The interior is white painted-and-glazed beadboard. I’m fairly certain the end of the rafter tails will be left unpainted (this is, after all, a warehouse!). Atop the bathroom, we’ll be storing boxes and other packing materials.
We couldn’t resist the vintage look of this sink and faucet set. I am particularly fond of the sprayer and soap pedestal.
The Slop Sink I love our Watermark Fixtures slop sink. In a fit of moving too quickly, we initially got it for the bathroom – but of course it would be impossible to get a wheelchair up to it, so we chose a different one to use in that space. Instead, we have an awfully fancy utility sink hanging on the outside back of the bathroom. In hindsight, that’s a better place for it anyway – it’s more visible. Most important though, we now have easy access to running water!
The Framing BK and his tireless employee, Eric, are done with the first-floor framing and are getting started in the basement on Monday. I just have to find some not-ugly fire doors to install in the two openings that will lead to the stairwell before we get the drywallers in to add two layers of type X drywall to the walls and type C to the ceilings up front. For the basement, an ugly door will do. (If anyone can point me toward a not-butt-ugly Shaker, Craftsman, or otherwise plain-but-not-flat-slab pre-hung 90-minute fire rated door, 32″ or 36″ wide, I’d greatly appreciate it. Finding doors that meet requirements at which we can also bear to look has proven to be a difficult challenge!)
In order the apply for temporary occupancy, we have to have the safety requirements in place in at least the basement and first floor, so we’re trying to move as quickly as possible on these fronts.
The shelving, and dwindling pile of beadboard as seen from the front of the first floor (with a glimpse at what will be the fire-rated wall along the stairwell).
The Shelving We are allowed to use the space for storage for now; all the shipping work we’ve been doing in Covington has been out of the editorial offices and machine room at Willard. And it’s been getting awfully crowded with the necessary packing materials and tools, so our new employees, Gabe and Mark, erected some shelving (out of the way of BK’s work) to provide some much-needed storage. And when they need more boxes, the Anthe building is less than a mile away.
And that’s about it for now – but stay tuned: If we can get the fire doors in place and the drywallers in quickly, we should be able to move all shipping operations to Anthe soon!
We will open our doors to the public on Saturday, July 29, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 837 Willard St. in Covington, Ky. We’ll be selling our complete line of products, signing books and – most of all – talking about woodworking.
I’ll display a bunch of the furniture I’m building for my next book, “The American Peasant.” Plus, I’ll be happy to demonstrate the grooving cutters I use to add spells and wards to the furniture.
We’ll also show off the Anthe building – the 1890s-era factory we are restoring to become our new headquarters. If you would like a tour of the Anthe building, we’ll lead walking tours that leave from Willard Street to 407 Madison Ave. The tours begin inside 837 Willard St. (our current building) at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.
If it’s too hot for you to walk (or you have mobility concerns), you can drive your car the 0.7 miles to the Anthe building and meet us there.
Please keep in mind that Anthe is under construction, so be sure to wear comfortable shoes with good traction. There is, however, electricity, plumbing and HVAC there. Other than the two tours, the Anthe building will not be open to the public that Saturday. Our fulfillment employees don’t work on weekends. So if you show up there (outside of the tours mentioned above), you’ll find the doors locked.
